Save You Tonight
by LeilaEditer
Summary: He watched her wilt under his influence; the cloud suppressing her sunshine. And each time his princess cried, a small part of him cried too. Each time he hurt her, he was hurt with her. She was just another doll to him. He didn't adore her. But in the end, when he went too far, he wasn't there to save her. His princess was gone. "Shh, Zel, it's alright..." One-shot.


**AAUGH! what is with me and these depressingly sad oneshots?! How do I live with myself?! Oh well. They seem to help me through this damn writer's block phase I'm going through. I mean, I have the ideas in my head, and then I can't make them sound normal typed out and it sounds non-sensical... Agh. This isn't my best, but it helps. A little.**

**So, this has to do with relationship abuse, and if you are in an abusive relationship: GET OUT. It won't get better, and if you're sacred, get help, ask for someone to help you, report them, anything. It. Will. Not. Get. Better. You can't change them, only they can change themselves.**

**~Leila**

**And for this, trials happen the next day. I know how long courts take in real life.**

* * *

"Shh, Zel, it's alright," I whispered, running my fingers through her tangled blonde hair as she cried into my shoulder. Her body shook with every sob, her small form trembling in my arms.

He did this to her. He does this to her every time, yet he can always make sure she'll crawl back to him. She is his play-thing, his doll, and nothing more. She is my princess, my world, my everything. Yet she is his and not mine.

She lifts her head away from my shoulder, her cheeks stained with her tears, her eyes red from crying, and her hair in disarray. She still looks gorgeous. She always does. The only thing distracting from her angelic beauty is a large, purpling bruise covering the majority of her right cheek. This is what he does to her. These are the marks of his "love".

I run my finger over the dark bruise now, tracing it lightly. She looks up at me with her clear blue eyes, still brimming with tears, and her lip trembling ever so slightly.

"Why do you let him do this?" I whisper. "How can you let him hurt you?"

She doesn't answer, she only lays her head back on my shoulder and wraps her hands around my neck. I hope she doesn't hear my quickening heartbeat or see my deepening blush.

"You don't understand, Link, Dark and I just-"

"Yeah, you're right, I don't understand! He's hurting you, Zelda! Every time you see him, you come back with some new bruise or cut or something, and I can't take it anymore!" I cried.

"Link, please!" Zelda begged, tears soaking into my shirt once again.

"Please what, Zelda?" I asked softly, working my fingers through her hair again.

No answer. It always hurts me to see her like this. Hurt, vulnerable, scared. Usually I can't get her to be quiet. She'll talk for hours about some new books she's read, or this cute dress she tried on at the mall with Fi and Karane, or even about how she loves the dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets taste better than the regular kind, but only a certain brand because the other brand tastes like cardboard. But as soon as Dark's name comes into the conversation, she clams up and you can't get anything out of her.

I never liked them together anyway. From the moment she introduced me to the mysterious, handsome, bad-boy Dark Morgenstern, I hated his guts more than anything on the planet. But at least Zelda was happy. She would babble on and on about the "magical" dates Dark took her on and how "lucky" she was to have him, and I'd listen even though every word felt like a dagger driving deeper and deeper into my heart.

Then, she started acting strange, almost panicky. She would avoid everyone, even me, and was a lot quieter. One day, when she was in one of her moods, I ignored her insistence that I stay away and walked into her room in time to see her applying layer upon layer of concealer in a weak attempt to cover a bruise on her neck. After a lot of tears and tissues, the truth came crashing down, and if it were possible, I hated Dark Morgenstern even more than I already did.

She made me swear not to tell, "Scout's honor", she insisted. She said it would change, assured me he would come to his senses. If anything, it got a lot worse. He progressively got more and more violent, and I was to kick him where the sun don't shine for her, when all of a sudden, he stopped.

The romantic dinners started again, and the sweet gifts and bouquets of flowers arrived at her doorstep. She couldn't be happier, telling me I was worried for no reason and that I should have more faith in Dark, but that was simply the eye of the hurricane. Three months later, he's back at it.

"Okay, alright, I think I'm better now," I heard Zelda say, breaking me from my thoughts. She pulled away from me, much to my reluctance and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her faded sweatshirt. It was my sweatshirt, one I had given her for a football game and had never bothered to ask for it back.

"I hate having to see see you like this," I murmured, brushing her hair from her face. She smiled and put her hand over mine, keeping it pressed to her face.

"Stop being such a worrywart," she teased. "Every hormonal teenage girl goes through stages like this."

No, they don't. Not like this.

I pulled her back into a hug. "Why do you let him?" I asked. "It hurts me when he hurts you."

"Link..." she protested, trying to stray off the topic again.

"No! Don't 'Link' me! Why do you stay with him?" I demanded, looking her straight in the beautiful blue eyes.

"Dark says we're in love," she said slowly.

"Aha! 'Dark says'. What does Zelda say?" I asked her, stroking her bruise again.

She bit her lip and looked away. "I shouldn't..."

"Zelda. Dark isn't here. He can't hear you. He can't hurt you. Are _you_ happy?" I asked her, tilting her face so she was looking at me again.

There was a long pause. "...It's complicated, Link. Sometimes, he's wonderful. He can make me feel like no one else can. It's amazing, and I'm happy. But recently, I've been upset. Scared. Unhappy," she choked out, tears welling up once again. "I'm so confused, Link, and I don't know what to do!"

I hugged her tight. "Say something. Anything. End it, please," I whispered.

"Link..." she sighed, looking up at me. Our eyes locked, and time seemed to freeze. My heartbeat sped up as she began leaning up, her eyes fluttering shut. I began landing forward as well, closing the gap...

"Oh, shoot!" she cried, jumping away. I bit my lip and looked down, ashamed. I'm such an idiot! She as a boyfriend! "Sorry, I... I have to get ready, I'm meeting Dark tonight," she said before running up the stairs, jumping four at a time.

"What?" I yelled, bolting upright. "Zelda!"

I got up from the couch and began running up the stairs stumbling over my own feet and often finding a face-full of carpet. I arrived in her room to find her already changed and applying makeup in front of her mirror. Several pictures of the two of us over the years were stuck in the sides, mingled with the occasional picture of her and Dark.

"Did you trip up the stairs?" she asked with a giggle as she rubbed mango Chapstick all over her lips and smacked them together.

"Yes, I did, but that's not the point! Do you think I'm seriously going to let you see Dark?" I asked as she brushed her long, curly blonde hair.

"Link, I'll go regardless. I promised I'd meet him tonight, and I'm a woman of my word," she said sternly, setting her brush down and turning to look at me, placing her hands on her hips.

"Can't you play sick?" I pleaded. "Please Zelda, you can't-"

"Shh, Link. If I go, I-I promise to talk with him. Good enough?" she asked, looking up at me, her eyes huge and innocent. I always seem to drown in her lovely azure eyes. They're like sapphire, only purer and prettier and-

"Alright, Zelda. If he hits you, leave. Please, for me."

"Aye aye, Cap'n!" she giggled with a salute, bounding down the stairs. I sulked behind her. I don't want her to leave.

She opened her front door, and we stepped out. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my sweatshirt and turned to leave to my house next-door. "Well, have... Fun tonight. Good luck with whatever, and abstinence is key," I grumbled, preparing to leave.

She yanked on my sweatshirt hood, causing me to choke and spin around to face her. She giggled and smiled shyly at me.

"Thank you, Link. You're my best friend, and I don't know what I'd do without you," she whispered. "You're always there for me when I need you, and I couldn't ask for more. I- Thank you."

And she leaned up and kissed me, just a brief brush of lips. My breath caught in my throat, and when she pulled away, she wouldn't look at me. Her face was slightly pink.

"Goodnight Link. See you tomorrow," she breathed. Then she turned and sprinted off into the night.

"I promise to talk to him tonight! I promise!" she yelled behind her.

I watched her disappear, her form melting into the shadows. As soon as I couldn't hear the sound of her Converse slapping the concrete or see the streetlights gleaming off of her golden hair, I whispered the three words I always want to say but never do.

"I love you."

o0o0o0o0o0

That was the last I saw her. Early the next morning, around two o' clock, I was harshly awakened by the shrill ring of the phone. Ignoring it, I managed to tune out my mother's muffled voice. Seconds later, my door was thrown open, and my mother, her voice thick with tears, shook me awake and told me the news.

Zelda was dead.

o0o0o0o0o0o0

It was in the papers as we drove to the courtroom, dressed in our Sunday best. _Girl Murdered on West Bridge_, advertised the headline. _Zelda Fray, 19, was found dead on the West Bridge last night at 11:42, bleeding from a head injury. Her boyfriend, Dark Morgenstern, is suspected to have been the cause of the young woman's death..._

It didn't seem real. The trial was all a blur to me. My breathing was heavy and my heart thudded in my chest. It wasn't true. I dug my fingernail into the wood of the hard, uncomfortable benches, and tugged at the collar of my shirt. I couldn't tear my eyes away from a pale Dark Morgenstern, sitting in the defendant's chair with a stunned look on his face. Something red-hot was burning in my heart, a fury for him I couldn't explain.

That whole day was spent listening to testimonies of witnesses and listening to the heated banters of the lawyers, each fighting for the win.

"Well, she told me they were going for a walk on the bridge," Zelda's mother sniffed, "And I thought nothing of it."

"I heard a bunch of screaming so I looked out my window and saw a boy slamming a girl against a concrete wall," a woman told the jury. "She was screaming some nonsense word over and over, it sounded a lot like, 'Link! Link!'..."

"My wife and I were walking home from dinner, and we heard yelling. Arguing. We got a little closer and could see two figures on the bridge, a blonde girl and him," a man said, pointing at Dark. "She was telling him she was going to leave him for someone else, and he was getting angry. We started walking faster to get to them, we could see it was escalating very quickly, and the young man yelled 'If I can't have you, no one can.' I yelled out for him to stop, but before we got there he smashed her against the side of the bridge multiple times. She was screaming and crying, then she got all quiet. When we got there and pulled him away, she was already gone..."

She was leaving him. She was breaking up with him. She did it for me.

o0o0o0o0o0o

That night, we my mom drove me to the funeral home to see her one last time before the funeral. The silence durning that car ride was so loud, it drowned out all other noise.

They led me to her room, and my mom hugged me and told me she'd meet me in the car. They let me in her room, and any resolve I promised myself crumbled immediately and I was sobbing like a child.

She was beautiful. Her blonde hair arranged around her head like a halo, her coral lips forced into a peaceful smile. They closed her blue eyes; she could have been sleeping.

I ran over to her and buried my face into her chest. Why? Why my Zelda? My body shook from sobbing, and my tears soaked her shirt. I held her and stroked her hair and traced her bruises like I did when she was here.

I should have stopped her. I could have stopped her. This is my fault. I held her close to me and ran my fingers through her hair. She was cold, so, so cold.

"Shh, Zel, it's alright," I whispered through my tears. "It's alright."


End file.
